As mentioned in my profile the Chung Do Kwan, or Blue Wave
School was founded in 1944 by Won Kuk Lee. This is the American ordering of his
name. In Korea it would be written as Lee Won Kuk and that is how you will find
it in many historical records. Both Grandmasters Lee and Son came to America and
embraced American culture. Part of this was changing the order of their names
which is why you will see the two orderings. The following paragraphs are the
result of my digging through articles, books and web pages in search of the
origins of the martial art system I study. Of all the resource material that I
used I credit the most to "Shotokan's Secret: The Hidden Truth Behind Karate's
Fighting Origins" by Dr. Bruce D. Clayton. He digs past the myths and outright
fabrications to get to the root of things in a clear and concise manner.
Working backwards we find that our Korean Art came from Japan,
which came from Okinawa, which came from China, which came from India. Beyond
that is speculation but there is a growing body of evidence that supports the
theory that a martial style was brought to India by the Macedonian army during
Alexander the Great's conquest. Here then is the trail from Greece to Korea and
eventually the United States of America:
 |
| PANKRATION |
The Macedonians were recorded as practicing a martial art known
as Pankration as far back as 648 B.C.E. and there are some who believe that this
is the original martial art. Pankration is a form of Greco-Roman style wrestling
that includes brutal striking techniques. A common tactic of Pankration is to
grab your opponent’s hair and pull his head down into an uppercut to the throat.
It is well documented that Pankration was added as an Olympic sport in the games
of 648 B.C.E. and has been dubbed the closest simulation of no-holds-barred
competitive fighting that any culture has ever allowed as a public sport. The
only techniques not allowed at those games were biting and gouging. Anything
else was acceptable, including full force kicks to the groin. It is recorded
that the Spartans allowed all techniques in their local athletic festivals. The
basic techniques of Pankration include a mixture of boxing and wrestling: hook
and uppercut punches, full-powered kicks, elbowing and kneeing, joint locks, as
well as numerous submission chokeholds. Sounds a lot like MMA. Apparently we
have come full circle! Utz!
 |
| PARASURAMA - Axe Wielding God |
No one can say with any certainty how, when or where martial art
development began in India. There are many legends and myths attributing it to
an Axe wielding Indian god known as Parsurama who was the sixth avatar or
incarnation of Vishnu. He was an ardent follower of Lord Shiva and received an
axe from him as a weapon. He supposedly established 108 Kalaris or schools and
taught the art of Kalaripayat to 21 disciples in order to protect his land.
Kalaripayat however, has been shown to have its roots in Dhanurveda, an even
older Indian science of warfare. This leads to another origin legend. It is said
that Dhanurveda was revealed by the Lord to sages Vishvamitra and Bhrigu who
became its original teachers. Other famous Dhanurveda teachers in Vedic times
were Parashurama (sic) and Drona. They are prominent characters in the classical
epic Mahabharata, a story of conflict among various warrior lineages. Dhanurveda
is also considered to be the origin of Vajramushti, another empty-handed Indian
martial art as well. The most Ancient versions of Vedic martial arts derived
from Dhanurveda are believed to be Thang-ta (in Manipur, East India) and
Kalaripayat (in Kerala, South West India.) A growing school of thought is that
the Indians learned the original martial skills from Alexander’s army when it
invaded India in 327 B.C.E. While there is no yet known empirical evidence for
this theory, it does make more sense than any of the aforementioned myths and
legends.
BODHIDHARMA
Bodhidharma was born on Oct. 5th. (Chinese Lunar Calendar) of
470 CE in Southern India, and was the third son of an Indian king whose royal
family belonged to the Bhramin caste. He was raised as a warrior to succeed his
father as king. He had been trained in the Kalaripayat technique of martial
arts. In Malayalam, the mother language of Kerala, India, Kalaripayat means
repetitive training (payat) inside an arena or school (kalari). It is a
scientific and comprehensive system of training for the body and the mind with
an elaborate repertoire of weapon training, which in the ancient times led to
the making of a proficient warrior.
Bodhidharma was not a typical boy and eventually became bored
with his courtly training. He began to study with a Buddhist teacher named
Prajnatara and became an ardent follower of the teachings. On his deathbed,
Prajnatara asked him to go to China to re-awaken the followers of Buddha.
According to various sources almost five percent of the population of China was
already made up of Buddhist Monks even before the arrival of Bodhidharma.
Legends vary in the method of his arrival, some say he traversed the Himalayan
Mountains, others say he rode a ship around the coast. Regardless, he arrived
around 526 C.E.
Upon
arriving in China, the Emperor Wu Ti, a Buddhist himself, who had heard of
Bodhidharma’s teaching, requested a meeting with him. Bodhidharma was unable to
convince Wu Ti of the value of the new teachings he brought from India and was
in fact banished from his court when the emperor discovered that the new
teachings would undermine his authority. Rather than returning home, Bodhidharma
set out on a northerly direction. He crossed the Tse River, and climbed Bear's
Ear Mountain in the Song Mountain range South of Luoyang and Zhengzhou to where
the Shaolin Temple of the Henan Province was located at the foot of Song Shan
Mountain. The temple had been founded forty years before by Buddhist monks and
was famous for its translations of the Buddhist scriptures into Chinese.
Bodhidharma sought entrance into the temple but was initially refused as many
travelers were. Legend has it that Bodhidharma then went to a nearby cave and
stared at a wall for nine years, supposedly burning holes it with his stare. He
is purported to have cut off his eyelids to stay awake in meditation, and so is
usually depicted with bulging eyes. Others say that he cut off his eyelashes and
that they fell to the ground and became tea plants. As the story goes, it was
this show of fortitude, whether that be staring or just occupying the cave for 9
years, that caused the monks to allow him to enter their temple.
Upon gaining entrance, Ta Mo or Damo (as he was now called by
the Chinese) saw that the monks were weak and unable to perform the rigorous
meditations he expected Buddhist Monks should be practicing. While meditating,
they often fell asleep or worse yet, became restless and were not achieving
inner peace which was required to reach enlightenment. He spent some time in
seclusion pondering the problem. He supposedly wrote down the results of his
meditations in two books. The Yi Gin Ching (Yijin Jing,) which taught ways to
increase the strength and health of the physical body and incorporated an
exercise regimen known as the "18 Fists of Lo Han"; and the Shi Sui Ching, which
was primarily a religious treatise explaining methods for developing the
Buddhist spirit by using Chi energy.
These books laid out an exercise program for the monks that
involved physical techniques that were efficient and strengthened the body.
Eventually, they became the foundation for a system of self-defense as they were
based on his knowledge of Indian fighting systems. His system involved dynamic
tension exercises. Many of the basic moves of both tai chi chuan and kung fu can
be seen in these exercises. These skills helped the monks to defend themselves
against invading warlords and bandits. Bodhidharma died in 539 C.E. at the Henan
Shaolin Temple at age 57. They laid him to rest in a tomb there.
Although many people believe this legend, the fact is there are
no records about the existence of the books before or during the Tang Dynasty
(618-907) so experts think Damo has little to do with Shao Lin Kung fu.
Zongheng, a Taoist priest of Tiantai Mountain, is believed to be the true author
of the book and wrote it in 1624. They suspect that to add mystery to it, he
made up a story saying the Yi Gin Ching was originally written by Damo, and that
his version was just a copy of the original. While there is no proof either way,
the Chinese fighting system that became known as Kung Fu was already in
development at the Shaolin Temple by 610 C.E.
THE SHAOLIN
MONKS
Shao Lin means Young Forest. The Chinese Buddhists fancied
themselves as a young forest of people that would grow in time and spread
throughout the world, bringing the Buddhist philosophy with it. They were
composed manly of monks serving as adepts who were learning to become priests.
The priests would then branch out, establish new monastaries and take on new
adepts. The roads that they travelled were often times plagued with bandits who
were not above stealing from priests or monks and would often kill them. As
such, the members of the monastary often stayed within the confines of their
walled fortress and only ventured out in large groups when supplies were needed.
For the most part this arrangement suited them but there were many recorded
instances of them attempting to travel and getting sacked. For them, a self
defense system was a very real necessity, but was also contrary to their
Buddhist philosophy of cause no harm. Until the arrival of Bodhidharma the monks
would refuse to resist attacks and just hope for the best. They were easy
prey.
The oldest
evidence of Shaolin participation in combat is a stele from 728 C.E. that
attests to two occasions: a defense of the Shaolin Monastery from bandits around
610 CE, and their subsequent role in the defeat of Wang Shichong at the Battle
of Hulao in 621 C.E. This
would give them a reasonable 84 years from the arriavl of Bodhidharma to develop a unique fighting system that
would enable them to accomplish the feats described on the 728
stele.
The stele states that the Tang Emperor called upon the Shaolin
monks to assists in defeating pirates in the southern region of China. They sent
500 monks headed by Dao Guang, Seng Man and Seng Feng. Working with the Tang
soldiers they managed to defeat the pirates but suffered many losses. Dao Guang
returned to the northern temple and received instructions to select a similar
location in the south and build a temple there in remembrance of the monks lost
in battle. He returned and selected a place in the Fukian province and with the
Tang emperor’s permission built the Southern Shaolin Temple there in 626 – 649
CE. For the next 250 years the southern temple prospered and many monks learned
the Northern Style of Kung Fu.
It is documented that in 900 C.E. a rich young noble and
experienced martial artist, entered the Henan Shaolin Monastery and assumed the
name of Chueh Yuan. He soon devoted all his studies to the further development
of Shaolin Kung Fu and fitness training. Chueh combined hard and soft techniques
in his forms. Within a few years, he revised the 18 Fists of Lo Han and created
what he called the 72 Styles or movements. His methods and teaching were so
successful that all Shaolin monks adopted his 72 fists very quickly. But Chueh
Yuan was still not fully satisfied with this and he went out to teach and learn,
looking for masters of other styles.
On his travels, Chueh Yuan witnessed a bandit attacking a
60-year-old traveler. He saw the attacker land an apparently very strong kick to
the body of the old man with no effect. The old traveler, using only two fingers
against the bandit's leg sent him to the ground, rendered unconscious by the
time Chueh reached them. This maneuver impressed Chueh and so he introduced
himself to the senior. Much to his surprise the old man told him that he did not
know very much martial arts and what little he did know, he had learned from the
local master Pai Yu Feng.
Chueh met with and convinced Pai Yu Feng to accompany him back
to his temple. Over the next few years, using the 18 fists, the 72 movements and
Pai’s 'pressure point techniques' Chueh and Pai Yu Feng redeveloped the Shaolin
exercises into the 170 exercises that became the foundations of Shaolin Kung Fu
as it is known today.
Records exist from between the 16th and 17th centuries that
provide evidence that the Shaolin monks practiced martial arts as an integral
element of their monastic life. It is possible that to justify it they created
the Bodhidharma lore, as the earliest appearance of the legend dates to this
period. The origin of this legend has been traced to the Ming period's Yijin
Jing or "Muscle Change Classic", a text written in 1624 and attributed to
Bodhidharma.
In 1644, the Manchurians invaded China and replaced the Ming
Dynasty with the Ch'ing dynasty. The Shaolin Temples became hives of
revolutionaries. In 1646 they formed a secret society called the Hung Fa Wui in
Weng Chun Tong and developed their fighting system into an extremely effective
one that is believed to be the precursor to modern Wing Chun style.
 |
| Fang Qi Niang |
One of the students of this new style was Fang Zhang Guang of
Zhejian province. He had a deep passion for martial arts and studied under
several masters and would practice seriously day and night. He intended to teach
his art to his son in law but the young man wanted nothing to do with it, so
Fang taught it to his daughter Fang Qi Niang in around 1700 CE. One day while
practicing her bo kata a large white crane landed near her. She poked at it with
her staff but the bird easily dodged or blocked off her attacks with its wings
or poked at it with its beak. She was impressed by its abilities and began
studying the fighting techniques of these birds and incorporated them into her
own fighting skills and created the White Crane style of Chuan Fa. Her husband
soon left her and she went to the local temple and became a nun. From there she
taught her White Crane style to many disciples. One of them was Chen Si. Chen Si
taught many students including Zheng Li who was known to re-combine many forms
into a unified chaun fa style that either he or one of his students taught to
Kong Su Kung. In 1768 the Mancurians destroyed the temple at Fukian. The Shaolin
masters fled to many parts of the country, thus spreading this style to a wider
audience.
 |
| KONG SU KUNG (KUSANKU) |
Kusanku, also known by his Chinese name Kong Su
Kung, was born around 1720 and resided in the Fukien province. He was a Chinese
Sifu who was an expert in the art of Chuan Fa White Crane Kung Fu, which he
learned from an unknown Shaolin Monk, possibly Zheng Li. Around 1756 he was sent
to Okinawa to as a Chinese military attaché and ambassador of the Ch'ing
Dynasty. In Okinawa he resided in the village of Kanemura near Naha city. It is
recorded that in 1761 Kusanku displayed Chinese boxing and grappling techniques
to a delighted audience in Okinawa. He taught the Chinese boxing style he called
Kenpo to Satunushi Sakugawa. He passed away around 1796.
Satunushi “Tode”
Sakugawa
Satunushi Sakugawa was born March 5, 1733 in Shuri, the ancient
capital of Okinawa and studied Okinawa-te under the Buddhist monk, and very
likely a Shuri castle bodyguard, Peichin Takahara for 6 years. In 1786 Sakugawa
tried to push the visiting Chinese ambassador Kushanku into a river as a
practical joke. Kushanku stopped Sakugawa's assaults with such ease that
Sakugawa was humiliated and immediately apologized. Kushanku was apparently
impressed with Sakugawa and invited him to train with him in White Crane Chaun
Fa. For another six years Sakugawa studied under Kushanku who taught him the
techniques of his art. At the same time, Sakugawa's former master fell sick.
Sakugawa returned to his Sensei who, before dying, asked him to change his name
to Tode and teach his new art. Tode literally means Chinese hand and in the On
form of Japanese Kanji is written using 2 symbols and is pronounced kara
te.
Sakugawa created his new style of Tode by combining the
techniques of his first master and the techniques of Kushanku. Shortly
thereafter he created the kata Kushanku, using the methods of fighting he had
learned. At age 78 he was asked to take on the young Matsumura as a student! He
passed away on August 17, 1815 at the age of 82.
Sokon
Matsumura
Sokon Matsumura was born in 1796 in the city of Shuri on the
island of Okinawa. At age 14 or 15 (some sources say 11) he went to train at the
school of Master Sakugawa. He may also have been taught by a Chinese Master
called Iwah. He received a master certificate from Yashuhiro Ijuin in Japan, a
master of the Jigen sword school of the Satsuma clan, and this suggests that he
was educated in samurai wrestling. Somewhere in all this training he learned or
discovered the secret to generating exponential power in his techniques by
throwing his body weight into them. This was new as Chaun Fa and Tode both
required the practitioner to remain rooted to the ground. By age 25 he was
renowned as the greatest fighter in the land.
Records show that he lived in China around the year 1830.
When he returned to Okinawa he formed his own style and started teaching a
modified Chinese form he called Patsai or Bassai.
While serving as the chief bodyguard to the king it was his duty
to protect the elderly Shuri ministers. During this period of history Okinawa
was a hotbed; owned by China, ruled by Japan and ministered by a puppet king.
Western whalers frequently made port there. Barbarians were at their gates and
the Okinawans were unarmed. It was literally a martial arts crucible with
Matsumura and his powerful new linear style at the head of a group he had
trained. Whenever any violence erupted at court, they were left facing one to
many odds and skin against steel. Owing to this unique situation he refined the
Chinese boxing he had learned into a deadly art which he simply called
Shuri-Te.
In the Kun style Kanji Matsumura's name is pronounced Matsu
Mura, but in the On style it would be Shoson. It literally means Pine Tree
Village.
He died in 1893 at the ripe old age of 97, almost 3 times the
average lifespan for an Okinawan in those days!
Anko "Yasutsune"
Itosu
Anko Itosu was born in 1830. It is recorded that his father
beat him regularly to instill an aggressive martial instinct in him. During his
youth he was sent to study martial arts, including Shuri-Te from Sokon
Matsumura. As an adult he served as the advisor to the last Okinawan King on
military subjects. He was known as one of the greatest experts of martial arts
on the island and was said to have been able to crush a green bamboo stalk in
his hand. During the Satsuma Rebellion, realizing that the men he was teaching
would be facing heavily armed soldiers; he re-tooled the Shuri Te into a new
hard style dubbed Shorin-Ryu (Shorin is how the Japanese mispronounced Shaolin,
a word which actually means young forest, and the Kanji Itosu used to name his
style actually meant bright forest, same…but different from the original Shaolin
Monks) and created the Heian series of katas to teach the deadly techniques.
These same katas became the Pinan series in Japanese and Pyang Ahn in Korean.
This new hard style was based on samurai wrestling (ju-jitsu) techniques that
would enable you to render your opponent immobilized long enough to affect a
deadly strike. This effectively removed most of the White Crane poking and
dodging techniques; however, if you look hard you will see a few still there.
In 1879 the Japonese ended the Okinawan Sho dynasty. Itosu
remained in Shuri after his king Sho Tai was exiled to Tokyo and he started a
small family printing business. At night, in secret, he taught Kara Te for the
next 20 years. It was during this time that his most famous student, Gichen
Funakoshi, trained with him. In 1902 the former king Sho Tai died, releasing all
former staff of any oath of secrecy. Itosu began teaching publicly and in 1905
started teaching at the Prefectural Dai Ichi College and the Prefectural
Teachers Training College.Anko Itosu passed away in 1915 at age 85.
Yatsutsune is how Anko is pronounced in the On style and so you will see
him listed as such in several books. It is the same person.
Yasutsune
Azato
Yasutsune Azato was born in 1828, the son of a Tonichi, one of
the highest classes of Okinawan society, in the town of Azato, which his family
presided over. Like his friend and companion Itosu, Azato trained under
Matsumara and served as military attaché and foreign affairs advisor to the Sho
kings. He was also trained in Jukendo bayonet fighting, horsemanship and
archery. Unlike Itosu, he believed in stepping out of the way of an incoming
attack rather than absorbing the blow and so speed was his primary advantage. In
the early 1880’s he became the first teacher of Gichen Funakoshi. After this he
drops out of karate history until his death in 1906 at age 78. It is possible
that he was sent into exile with his former king as Funakoshi indicates that he
“served as ambassador to Tokyo for many years”. Although he left no other legacy
behind, Funakoshi regarded him as the greatest martial artist he ever met.
Gichen
Funakoshi
Gichen Funakoshi was born in Shuri, the capital of Okinawa, in
1868. According to his autobiography, "Karate-Do: My Way of Life," he described
himself as a prematurely born and rather a sickly baby and a frail child. At age
11 his family sent him to learn Shorin-Ryu Te under master Yasutsune Azato in
the hopes that it would improve his health. He secretly snuck out to Azato's
home at midnight and practiced kata naihanchi over and over again for 3 years by
lamp in the courtyard as Azato grunted “Again!.” Besides master Azato he was
also fortunate enough to learn from master Anko Itosu and on a few
occasions even master Matsumura! They all classified him as a competent
practitioner and continuously urge him on. He continued to study even after
taking up teaching as a profession. He moved to Japan and took a teaching
position at the university in Tokyo. He became familiar with Japanese life and
integrated himself well. It was because of this and his position at the
university that he was asked to begin teaching Te in Japan. Using his knowledge
of Japanese culture he reformulated the teaching style and created what he
called Kara Te Do, or “Empty Hand Way.” This Zen influence added philosophy to
the Jutsu or “Technique” of the style and created a new Martial Art with strong
Japanese undertones that eventually became known simply as karate.
In 1915 Sensei Funakoshi was invited to demonstrate karate at
the Butokuden in Kyoto, Japan to introduce the Japanese aristocracy to the new
art form. In 1922, the rest of Japan was introduced to karate, when Funakoshi
participated in the First National Athletic Exhibition in Tokyo. Later that year
his first book, Ryukyu Kempo: Karate was published. In 1926 karate was
officially instituted in Tokyo University. In 1935 he published his second book,
Karate-do Kyohan.
In 1936 he opened a dojo at a lodging house for some of his
students from Okinawa. He described in his book that his students placed a sign
board over the entrance to the dojo that had “Shoto Kan” (Shoto’s House)
inscribed on it. Shoto was a pen name that Funakoshi used in his youth to sign
the Chinese poems he had written while in school. Although it would have been
more proper to call him Funakoshi-san, most of his students and friends referred
to him simply as "Shoto" and so eventually his style of teaching became known as
Shotokan Karate. Shoto literally means “Waving Pines” and is a reference to the
blue pine trees of Okinawa waving with the wind during his many medatative walks
after karate practice, a notion which Funakoshi thought to be poetic in itself,
and thus why he adopted it as his pen name.
In 1955 the Japan Karate Association was established and
Grandmaster Funakoshi was appointed as its chief instructor. In 1958, the
Association held the first All-Japan karate championship tournament. Grandmaster
Funakoshi passed away in 1958, at the age of 90.
Won Kuk
Lee
Won Kuk Lee (Lee Won Kuk in Korean) was born April 13, 1907. He
started his martial arts training as a young man, studying the Korean art of Tae
Kyon in secret because it was outlawed by the Korean government 80 years prior. Later, all martial arts training had been forbidden within the country by the
Japanese since their occupation of 1926. In 1927 he decided to seek a better
life and attended college at the Central University law school in Japan.
According to most sources he studied Shotokan Karate, under Great Grandmaster
Gichin Funakoshi. In an interview conducted in 1997 for Tae Kwon Do
Times magazine Lee states that while at
university he studied what he called Tang Soo Do (Way of the T’ang – Chinese
were refered to as T’ang because they were ruled by the T’ang dynasty) and then
later studied karate under Sensei Hunagoshi. While watching a rare film on Funakoshi I heard that his birth name was in fact Hunagoshi and that he had chamged it to Funakoshi, but it gave no reason for this, nor a time frame, but it must have been after Lee studied with him. It is odd that Funakoshi's own biography does not make mention of this name change.
A while after achieving his 3rd or 4th degree black belt (it is
listed as Sandan which is translated as 3rd in Japanese and 4th in Korean), Lee
began to travel the orient to learn more of the martial arts. He visited Okinawa
and the Shaolin temples in Henan and Shanghai in China. In 1944 he decided to
return to his home of Korea so that he could show his people the beauty of the
martial arts. He began teaching in secret and also applied to the Japanese
occupation government to be allowed to teach martial arts in Korea. He was
turned down twice, but upon the third time, he was approved with the help of the
Japanese Governor General Abe. Finally given permission, he opened the first
dojang in Korea, calling it the Chung Do Kwan, and taught the art of Tang Soo Do
legally for the first time in Korea at the Yung Shin School Gymnasium in Sa De
Mun, Ok Chun Dong district in Seoul.
The name Chung Do Kwan means 'Blue Wave School'. According to
some, Grandmaster Lee arrived at this name while sitting at a beach one day, and
watching the waves come in. He supposedly set in his mind that the waves were
strong and unstoppable and that is how he wanted his martial art to be known.
Others feel that as a student of Funakoshi, he named the school as a tribute to
his former teacher’s nick name “Shoto” which meant “waving pines”. This is a
standard practice in Asian culture, taking the name of your teacher or mentor
and adding to it. Using this theory the blue wave would refer to the "waving
blue pines", a suitable representation of the martial artist because they bend
with the wind but do not break because they have strong roots. This also falls
in line with Matsumura’s “Pine Tree Village” and and the Kanji that Itosu used
to represent Shorin, the “Bright Forest”. I believe these are all humble
references to the Shaolin “Young Forest” origin of the style.
It wasn't too long before the popularity of Chung Do Kwan
gained national attention. Korea's first President, Syngman Rhee, requested that
all Chung do Kwan members apply for membership in the Korean Republican Party.
In exchange, Grandmaster Lee was offered the post of Minister of Internal
Affairs. Due to his suspicion of the government's motive in recruiting all the
members, Grandmaster Lee declined. As soon as the offer was rejected, he was
arrested and accused by the government of being the leader of a group of
assassins. The fact that he had been the first to get permission from the
Japanese government to start a school made him even more suspect. His wife,
family, and students Duk Sung Son, Yung Taek Chong and several others were
beaten and tortured by the government. A few sources say that some of the
students were lynched. Then on June 25, 1950 war broke out and they were
released. Grandmaster Lee was forced to flee to Pusan City. The Chung Do Kwan
continued under the instruction of senior students Ung Jun Yoo and Duk Sung Son.
Yoo and several of the other students later asked Son to take over. Son
disregarded the requests until Yoo went to Lee, who by now had moved to Japan,
and returned with a letter of appointment for Son to the position of head master
(Kwan Jang), signed by Lee. Grandmaster Lee eventually immigrated to the United
States at the request of General Westmoreland. He passed away in 2003.
Duk Sung
Son
Duk Sung Son (Son Duk Sung in Korean) was born in Korea on
June 6, 1922. He started his martial career at age 19 as a boxer. He said that
his parents were not pleased with him coming home bruised every day and he was
not fond of it either but he enjoyed the fighting. For this reason he began
studying Tang Soo Do in 1944 at the Chung Do Kwan under Won Kuk Lee, as this was
a non contact form of fighting. He quickly attained his black belt and continued
onward to 4th Dan and Sa Bum Nim (master.) When war broke out in 1950
Gandmaster Lee fled to Japan and appointed Yoo Ung Jun as the headmaster but Yoo
Ung Jun was sympathetic to the North and left the school to fight for them. The
remaining senior students went to Japan and asked Grandmaster Lee to appoint Duk
Sung Son, who was the next senior student, as the new head master (Kwan Jang) of
the Chung Do Kwan. With Kwan Jang certificate in hand Duk Sung Son proceeded to
run the Chung Do Kwan but soon. because of the war, the school was forced to
close to the public. Grandmaster Son continued teaching Tang Soo Do but suffered
financially during these times as he was not charging the military and police,
who were his only students then, the usual fees. He persevered though, and
conducted demonstrations in the hopes of revitalizing interest in Tang Soo Do.
In 1953 he was appointed as the first chief instructor to the Republic of Korea
Army, which officially re-opened the school.
In 1955 an effort was made by the various Kwans to have some
sort of National Unity in the Korean Martial Arts. At this time he was teaching
Tang Soo Do to novice policemen. Grandmaster Son and General Hyung Hi Choi
(latter to become president of the ITF) were both on the panel that came up with
the name "Tae Kwon Do" for the Korean martial art. According to Grandmaster Son,
he wrote the words down on a piece of paper and handed them to Choi who
subsequently took credit for it. After this meeting most of the kwans, including
the Chung Do Kwan, changed the name of their style to Tae Kwon Do, even though
many of them were practicing a style that was uniquely different from each
other. In Korean, tae means to strike with the foot; kwon means to strike or
smash with the hand; and do means art, or way of life. Hence, tae kwon do is
loosely translated as "the way of the foot and fist". The name was simply a
means to eliminate any reference to Japan or China.
After this meeting Grandmaster Son stayed in close contact with General Choi, using his influence to help spread tae kwon do. Choi was presented with an honorary 4th Dan certificate by Grandmaster Son for his dedication to the art. Choi formed a new school called the Oh Do Kwan. Only 2 years after getting his honorary 4th Dan, Choi brought a filled out 6th Dan and Grandmaster certificate to Grandmaster Son for him to sign. Son was infuriated at this display of arrogance and tore up the certificate and told Choi he was revoking his Honorary 4th Dan as well. Madden by this action, Choi used his influence with the government to assign Woon Kyu Uhm as the new grand master to the Chung Do Kwan. Grandmaster Son and Master Suk Kyu Kim then formed a new school called the Kuk Mu Kwan.
In 1961 the Korean government put pressure on the Kwans to
unify, forming the Korean Tae Kwon Do Association (KTA) with General Choi as
president. This caused a rift that would
continue to expand in the future. Some of the Kwan's, especially the Chung Do
Kwan, wanted to keep their own identity and training methods and remained aloof.
But in 1962 the Korean government only recognized the rank of those in the KTA.
Many of the Tae Kwon Do masters were frustrated with the restrictions this
placed on their training, so in the early 1960's many of them left Korea and
formed Tae Kwon Do organizations around the world.
In April 1963 Grandmaster Son immigrated to the U.S. He
opened the Te Han Karate School in New York City. Several of his students from
Korea organized with him and the masters of that group were eager to start a
central organization that they could open schools under. They elected Son as
their Grandmaster and he founded the World Tae Kwon Do Association in New York
City. He achieved his rank of ninth Dan by defeating masters of other
organizations and assuming their rank. He stopped at ninth because, according to
him, his master (Lee) was a 10th Dan and how could he be better than his master?
He performed Tae Kwon Do demonstrations in 1964-1965 at the N.Y. World’s Fair to
introduce the Korean martial art to the United States in a venue not undertaken
by any of the few masters who preceded him such as his former student Jhoon Rhee. Within a few
years, Son was teaching his art at Princeton, N.Y.U., Brown and Fordham
Universities, and later at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His
organization quickly grew in the Northeast and throughout the rest of the
country to a level of over 450 schools from coast to coast.
Grandmaster Son authored two textbooks on Tae Kwon Do; the
first book is titled “Korean Karate, The Art of Tae Kwon Do” and the second book
is titled “Black Belt Korean Karate”. In July of 2007, at the age of 85,
Grandmaster Son conducted his 17th annual black belt summer camp at Storm King
School in New York. He continued to teach his classes in New York City until
2008 when he moved in with his daughter Yehjong Son Cundy in Newport, RI, USA where he
remained until his death in 2011. In 2009 he appointed his daughter Yehjong
as the president of the WTA and she remains as the organizations leader to this
day.
No comments:
Post a Comment